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Taylor, Haywood Maurice

by William S. Powell, 1996

11 May 1898–21 Oct. 1960

Haywood Maurice Taylor, toxicologist and biochemist, was born near Tarboro, Edgecombe County, the son of David Dawson and Margaret Elizabeth Brown Taylor. His studies at The University of North Carolina were interrupted by service in the army during World War I, when he was a first lieutenant. He was graduated in 1920 with a B.S. degree, then received the M.S. in 1921 and the Ph.D. in 1924. At the university he was an instructor in chemistry and pharmacy in 1920–25; he also taught science at the Chapel Hill High School in 1921–22. Taylor was a research chemist with E. R. Squibb and Sons in New York and then head of the department of chemistry at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School before joining the original staff of the Duke University Medical Center when it opened in 1930. Widely known as a toxicologist, he was professor of biochemistry at Duke and in 1950 became professor of toxicology. He served as a consultant to the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation and to the North Carolina Medical Examiners Systems. During World War II he was appointed gas consultant to the state Office of Civilian Defense.

He married Alice Lee Brown of Chadbourn on 29 Oct. 1922, and they had two daughters, Alice Lee and Martha Anne. An Episcopalian, he was buried in Maplewood Cemetery, Durham.

References:

Alumni Files (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill).

Maurice M. Bursey, Carolina Chemists (1982 [portrait]).

Durham Morning Herald, 2 Oct. 1960.

Daniel L. Grant, Alumni History of the University of North Carolina (1924).